travels, races, and other musings

Background/Pre-Race My very first CapTexTri was also my first triathlon ever. In 2006 I became a triathlete when I raced the super sprint distance of this event. The following year, I signed up for my first Olympic distance at the same race. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans and due to insane rain all night and all that morning, the race was cancelled.  I didn’t sign up for the race again until 2012 and also in 2013 and both races went well. But starting in 2014, the weather had other plans. The year I was about a mile from the finish when a giant thunderstorm forced me and hundreds of other athletes off the course. The following year in 2015, more rain cancelled the swim and we did a bike and run event. Last year was even worse and the swim and bike were cancelled and we only ran.  I can hear your thoughts, “Why on earth do you keep signing up for this thing?” Well, for one thing, they gave me this year’s entry for super cheap. It was $25 or something. And I figure, it

The Harry Potter areas of Universal are incredibly immersive and jaw dropping in their detail. It exceeded all expectations. We had a lot of fun exploring and enjoying those areas in both parks. Unfortunately, the rest of the parks didn’t really offer much that we enjoyed. We don’t do big coasters or thrill rides and the smaller coasters are so short, it’s hard to enjoy them. I enjoyed the Mummy and Gringotts and Roger liked the Mummy okay, but felt Gringotts was brought down by the 3D motion simulation aspects and would have preferred more of the real motion sections of the ride. Volcano Bay offered some really great slides but the capacity of the rides is such that, even with Tapu Tapu, on busier days, people will be waiting a long time for rides once crowds grow. Right now, the only way to really enjoy this park is to be there right at opening. Early entry if staying on properly and it’s available is a huge bonus. If we hadn’t gone to Volcano Bay, our four days there would have

back to the real world We set the alarm for 7:30 to give us enough time to pack up and be downstairs at Islands for our character breakfast. Roger blow dried wet shoes while I packed and Emmaline read a comic book on her iPad. Once packed, we checked our bags with the luggage desk and went to our breakfast. They had both a menu and a buffet. Ordering off the menu was more cost effective and Roger argued for that approach, but Emmaline and I liked the variety of items on the buffet. I pointed out that we could stuff ourselves silly and skip lunch, having an early dinner at the airport. Emmaline and I won out and we ate an $84 breakfast while meeting Gru, a minion, Bart Simpson and Homer Simpson. We ate a ton of food and I regret nothing.  After breakfast, we jumped on the water taxi and entered Islands of Adventure, heading directly for Pteranadon Flyers which was posting a 35 minute wait. I explained what happened the previous day to a very nice man who took us directly

I solemnly swear, we usually rope drop theme parks! We slept in! Having already ridden Forbidden Journey, I didn’t see a lot of point to early entry at Islands of Adventure. After another leisurely morning of sleeping in and cereal in our hotel room, we made our way to Islands of Adventure around 10 AM. First we spent a little over an hour in the Dr. Suess area of the park. It was cute, but obviously the rides were geared to a smaller, younger, crowd. Emmaline still enjoyed it and had fun meeting some of the characters. Characters sure are low key at Universal. It’s more like I remember the characters being when I was a kid at Disneyland. We had some snacks and went next to the Lost Continent and checked out the Mystic Fountain which was fun and silly, then watched the Posiden’s Fury show, which was pretty good. Some aspects were a little hokey, but Emmaline thought parts of it were really scary and so it wasn’t a huge hit. We were right next to Mythos, but it was only 12:10

let’s go to a new water park a week after it’s opened!  Volcano Bay had early park admission for onsite guests starting at 8 AM so we decided that would be the best plan of attack. We left our room at 7:40 and made our way to the bus pickup where we arrived around 7:45. We must have just missed one because we waited about 15 minutes before a bus came at around 8. Then we picked up people at Sapphire Falls before arriving at Volcano Bay around 8:10. We picked up our Tapu Tapu bracelets and I found a spot by the wave pool for our stuff. We didn’t get a locker, leaving phones in our room and taking our other items in a waterproof pouch that I kept around my neck. After that, we headed straight for Krakatau Aqua Coaster. It said “Ride Now” so we got in line. We waited probably 10-15 minutes to ride. I loved it but Emmaline and Roger weren’t sure. Roger said he had a headache and unfortunately, I didn’t have any advil with me. Usually I carry some, but since we only brought the bare nec

in which we sleep in! I always wake up before my family and this day was no exception. I snuck out of the room quietly and went down to the front desk to ask where I could buy a toothbrush because I realized the night before that I had forgotten mine. I’m not usually a forgetful packer, but I guess in the rush of gathering and packing everything in just a couple of hours I forgot it. The front desk gave me a free one! Then I asked her to repeat all the info from the night before because I wasn’t in a position to absorb everything at 1:00 AM. Then I set off to get the lay of the land and figure out how to walk or take the water taxi to the parks. After that I went back to the room and everyone was waking up so we had some cereal in our room while we watched a tree full of baby raccoons outside our window and got changed to head over to Universal Studios. We immediately made for Diagon Alley. Entering Diagon Alley was so exciting as I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. Emmaline is, too, as I